Extinction Talks

This article can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/30/world/30biodiversity.html?_r=1&ref=science

    The (apparent) effort to improve the world through global political action cannot be questioned: numerous international climate talks have taken place in the past few years, with varying amounts of success. But this story tells of a slightly different kind of world-saving political agenda—to reduce the extinction rate of plant and animal species worldwide. An agreement, called the Nagoya Protocol, was recently made at a United Nations talk in Japan to set specific goals for reducing the extinction rate, as well as to properly share the profits from region-based pharmaceutical products (developed from local plants or animals) between rich and poor nations.

    The writer, Neil MacFarquhar, rightly put all the above information in the lead, quickly followed by the specifics of the approved goals and their significance: “The agreement …sets a goal of cutting the current extinction rate by half or more by 2020. The Earth is losing species at 100 to 1,000 times the historical average, according to scientists who call the current period the worst since the dinosaurs were lost 65 million years ago.” This comparison to the extinction of the dinosaurs puts the current issue into perspective for the reader, and helps emphasize its importance. MacFarquhar also includes a bit on previous agreements similar to the Nagoya: “A previous and vague agreement in 2002 to substantially reverse the loss of species by 2010 failed to achieve that target.” It seems that when it comes to reducing extinction, as in the fight against global warming, global political change is hard to come by.